Exit Signs

Exit signs are all around us. Whenever we go into a building we’re sure to find an illuminated exit sign somewhere close by, accompanied of course by a basic map detailing the quickest way out. I can remember being stuck in a parking garage once that didn’t have clearly marked exit signs. Seriously it took way longer than was necessary and definitely longer than I had patience for. I felt trapped.  All I wanted was to get out, and I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I got out. Exit signs are preventative measures built in for our safety. Sometimes exit signs exist in case we’re ever in an emergency and need to  know the quickest way to get out. However other times, exit signs are merely markers that guide us along the next part of our journey. 

And yet all too often, many of us make use of exit signs far more than we may even realize, and far too often when we’re not really in an emergency. How many times do we quantify uncomfortableness for emergencies? I myself will admit that more times than not I’ve allowed myself to perceive uncomfortable situations (big & small) as emergencies. So what do I do? Look for the exit sign of course! I want to know the quickest way out at all times. I want to know the quickest way out of an uncomfortable situation; the quickest way out of anything that demands even the slightest bit of my vulnerability & authenticity. 

I’m learning that true grief demands a whole lot of pain, uncomfortableness, vulnerability, and authenticity – all the things that make me want to know exactly where all the escape routes are at any given moment! Why? So I can bolt. I mean come on now, feeling large amounts of pain, uncomfortableness, and God only knows what else has to be an emergency – right? 

Our culture gets more hedonistic everyday; so everyday more and more people identify anything unpleasant as an immediate need for escape. But what if our continual escapes for quick fixes and seemingly great answers to uncomfortable and unpleasant situations is nothing more than a detour, a false way out? What if it’s a false sense of security? What if by trying to find the quickest way to something more pleasurable we end up adding tedious miles to the already long-enough journey? 

Saving up for Frequent Flier Miles is an awesome reward in some areas of life, grief I am coming to find is really not one of them. In terms of grief, I used to stuff and hide the miles away…thinking that there must be some great reward for racking up the hidden miles. There wasn’t. The reward was simply false security and several bonus packages of tedious and grueling miles added to the already seemingly never-ending journey of life. A journey and life that didn’t resembled the bonus package promised by Jesus in John 10:10 at all; “I came so that you can have real and eternal life, more and better life you ever dreamed of.”

The first part of that passage says “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy.” Satan wants me, wants you, to get out quick, to make inappropriate, inauthentic, and non-vulnerable bolts out the closest exit. 

Escapes from authentic, life-changing relationships with others & Jesus; Escapes from the love, grace, & mercy of our Father, the Most High God; Escapes from the opportunity to walk and live a real life, a life better and more than anything we could have dreamed of (not just in heaven, but here on earth). 

What if exist signs stopped being our quick fixes to uncomfortable, vulnerable challenging moments, but rather became the prayerful, curious, and at times painful adventurous through grief (or whatever else you’re working on). What if I used them as a reminder to ask God how I’m supposed to sit in the hard, painful, & uber uncomfortable moments and loses of life instead of just bolting through, giving up opportunities for that amazing life? The real and amazing pieces of life that I can only know through being willing to grieve.